Silvia Bluejay

The by now Basschat-infamous White Hart in Hemel!

Yup it is! We played there the first time when @Happy Jack was depping with a band who only did old-school, big, very heavy equipment. We played there again a few times with The Junkyard Dogs, every time putting lighter and lighter gear in the van, knowing what expected us. Then we stopped bothering to get gigs there.

We have the whole of the PA in our car for every gig, as well as the bass rig and, for Damo And The Dynamites, the double bass and the guitars with their rig (as well as Damo himself, but he hasn't needed to be carried anywhere so far!). I also have lights, roller banners and photo equipment to carry. So yes, we now tend to select only those venues where parking and load in are not too much trouble.

You may also remember The Victoria Club in Aylesbury. No legal parking in front of the club, and the hall is up two flights of stairs, requiring a quick load into the entrance hall downstairs - while keeping an eye on parking wardens - followed by carrying everything up the stairs. Same in reverse at the end of the night. *shivers*

I've checked their website, and I see that they still haven't got a lot firmed down in terms of star guests and their slots, especially on the Sunday. (Now, where have I seen this situation before, I wonder...? ) We've got a gig on the Saturday, so that day is a bust, which is a shame because, so far, it looks like the better day to attend. On the other hand, the Sunday is all 'TBC' so we may still be surprised.

Posted on BC Twitter and Facebook as planned!

Making a note of that as we speak. See you there.

I know that quite a number of us Basschat members will jump on a plane/train or in a car to Anaheim this coming January. Would be nice to hear if any of you will be exhibiting, performing, or even simply attending. I want to make a point of meeting @Passinwind in person, seeing I missed him last time I was at the show. I will obviously check out the new 'Sadowsky by Warwick' models. I will want to lose myself among the dozens of double basses at those huge Chinese booths, and have to be dragged away by @Happy Jack because it's getting late and we want to see another 12 halls. I hope to see there most of the companies that didn't make it to the LBGS last September. @Chownybass, @skelf, are you going to be there again this year? Who else? I will obviously take my usual billion photos and spend the whole of February writing a series of megablogs (as you do...). Recommendations for things we should not miss?

The two natural Corvettes have the newer, two-piece Warwick bridge, while the other three basses - like yours - have the old one-piece bridge. The latter was discontinued because it didn't allow thicker strings to pass through, especially on the 5-string basses. I have had to buy tapered flatwounds (LaBella low tension flats) for the blue Fortress, as non-tapered low Bs got caught and mangled (or stuck) in the hole.

Yup, Rockbasses rule. And yes, using the serial number on the back of the headstock will give you info.

I received the email, but it's too long to copy in a Twitter post. If we can have the text and links in a post or a separate thread, then I can link to it and post it on both Twitter and Facebook.

FWIW, I bought several brand new Warwicks (two Pros and three Rockbasses), and they were always perfectly set up, and ready to play. I only play flats, so I got rid of the rounds they came with, and I have slightly idiosyncratic tastes about action and saddle height, so I re-did the setup, but that wasn't because they were unplayable to start with. I bought them from Thomann, but as far as I know, they don't even open the boxes, let alone set the basses up; they simply sell them on as they come from Warwick.

@BlueMoon and @thodrik, the two threads have been merged as per your request.

Not being able to correctly set up the intonation on the low B and E is a more common problem than many people think. Especially for those of us who only play flatwounds. I feel your pain. I have been known to remove the spring from each of the saddles in question, to be able to push the saddle back a millimetre or so. So far it has worked on all my basses, but it ain't a particularly neat solution.

I've tweeted this thread on Basschat's account. Hope it is recovered. PS Also on Basschat's Facebook page.

The bass, the beer, the Bass Gear t-shirt, the music room, and the stuff on the walls! 😊👍

@Happy Jack has a few weird ones, but I'd say this is the most notable... 😎

💪🤘👍😎😊

The next step down in a bass is a low F#, and up is a high C. I remember @Dood once owning a 7-string tuned F# - B - E - A - D - G - C, I think? Looked and sounded awesome.

I'm usually too busy keeping an eye and an ear on the band to start conversations with drunk punters, but one day I probably will! But I don't expect a coherent reply... 🙄

It happened again, tonight - twice. Junkyard Dogs gig. Middle of the second set, a young guy comes to me and asks me to play some Rod Stewart. Usual reply, along the lines of 'Fraid not, he's not in the setlist'. 'You have a setlist?' comes his reaction. 'I thought you were choosing the music...' I'm beginning to get the impression these people believe I should have even more power over the band than I already have. Hmm... 😄🙄 Beginning of the third set, girl comes to me, and goes straight to the point: 'Are you the DJ?' 'No, I'm the sound engineer.' 'Oh.' *walks away* She clearly didn't think I was even worth talking to any further, not being the DJ.

Thanks for that very interesting site comparison, with technical bits, @lemonstar. I'm on several other music sites too, but Basschat is the only one I visit regularly and I'm happy to have been moderating since 2012. To answer your query about the calendar, after the interface redesign in Nov 2017 we have been trying to figure out how to get the best out of it, but IMO it's still not user-friendly enough: every event has to be added to it manually (which is fine), but then, well, they stay there. No reminder feature, no particular main page prominence to the calendar, etc. I think that's another feature the admin team will be looking at in due course. @charic is our developer, and he's working on this site alongside his day job, so his availability is limited, and there is always a need to prioritise tasks.

See, if you had a sound engineer, that girl would ask him/her instead, and be extremely surprised when told they can't 'play' that song. As per my OP.

At one Dogs gig at the White Hart we were forced to wait on stage, in the alcove, for about half an hour after the gig, just so some space would free up on the floor, so we could start breaking down and loading out. At another gig there, there was a massive fight, complete with spilt pints and broken glass, right in front of our extremely expensive subwoofer placed on the floor, stage left. At Ye Olde Swan, the guy who tried to sleep in Jack's DB case also walked off with it a few minutes later, once it contained his shiny Ali DB. We ran after him, of course. He was too out of it even to realise what he was doing, so we had no problem taking it back from him. He then proceeded to try and wrestle an extension lead from my hands, at which point I angrily yelled at him. That seemed to work - he went away... The Wheatsheaf in Dunstable is a friendly place. I'm not keen on the layout and the area where the band has to set up, as there seems to be no decent place where I can be more or less in front of the band with my tablet and the camera. No complaints about the manager or the crowd.

Oh, as we were also talking about birds, I thought you meant to show a tit on that photo.